Originally Posted by Cyber370

This would be the biggest concern. If you lug your engine you have a chance of doing a lot more damage than redlining it. Alot of people simply do not understand this and the manufacturers are to blame. Recommended shift points that they put in owners manuals are to please the EPA, that's all. They are completely unrealistic.

I remember a friend of mine who kept shifting way too early and I kept telling him that his engine would fail one day. Well, it actually did. He was in 4th going up a hill at an insufficient speed and boom! Blew his engine on his fairly new Ford Escape. If I recall, a broken connecting rod.